First-class dogs

Wichita Falls group saves animals

photos by Alyssa Johnston/Times Record News
Lorie Waver, foster mom, and Katrena Mitchell, Animal Services administrator, talk as they wait for Calypso’s plane that began her journey to her forever home in Iowa on Saturday morning. Animal Services in Wichita Falls worked with a pointer rescue and Pilots N Paws to find Calypso a forever home.

Michael Reddick, Pilots N Paws pilot, greets his passenger Calypso before takeoff at Kickapoo Downtown Airport on Saturday morning. Reddick flew the 10-week-old puppy to Sandy Springs, Okla., on the first branch of her three-flight journey.

Alyssa Johnston/Times Record News
Michael Reddick, pilot, loads Calypso into his plane at Kickapoo Downtown Airport Saturday morning to begin her journey to her forever home in Iowa.$RETURN$$RETURN$

Pilots N Paws worked with the Wichita Falls Animal Services Center on Saturday to help save the life of a playful 10-week-old pointer puppy.

The nonprofit organization works with rescues across the U.S. flying dogs to and from rescues, shelters and forever homes.

Katrena Mitchell, Animal Services administrator, and Lorie Weaver, Pets Pantry director and foster mom for American Brittany Rescue, took Calypso to the Kickapoo Downtown Airport early Saturday where she began her journey to her forever home.

Pilots N Paws is composed of pilots who volunteer their time and fuel to transport the animals by air to various places as necessary.

Calypso was brought to the Animal Services Center as a stray, and Weaver volunteered to foster the young pup so she could stay happy, healthy and housebroken while she was placed.

Great Plains Pointer Rescue, of Nebraska, accepted her immediately, and a family in Iowa has adopted her.

"We've worked with Great Plains Pointer Rescue several other times with some of our other pointers that have come through, so I contacted them, and they immediately said they would take her. We waited until her reclaim day was up, then Lorie took her into foster, got her shots started. ... Then the pointer rescue arranged for the flight," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said in the Northeast and Northwest, shelters are not as full because of high sterilization rates, and certain breeds of dogs are hard to come by, so many animals are easily placed with rescues in the north.

Michael Reddick, a pilot who lives in Fort Worth and flies in his free time, started working with Pilots N Paws about a year and a half ago. Calypso is his ninth dog to fly. He picked her up at the Kickapoo Downtown airport about 9 a.m. and flew her to Sandy Springs, Okla.

From there another pilot flew her to Excelsior Springs, Mo., then she flew to Winterset, Iowa.

"This is definitely a great success story," Weaver said.

Reddick said his smaller plane limits him to a 30-pound or lighter dog. He retired in October and has lots of time to volunteer now, he said.

"We get a lot of enjoyment out of it," Reddick said as he reminisced about past trips.

He said he heard of the organization through another pilot friend and said he's been doing it ever since.

Mitchell wanted to stress the importance of sterilizing their animals to prevent euthanasia. Education is key, she said.

Weaver noted that PETS Low Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic preforms sterilization surgeries at low or no cost to the animal's owner.

Spaying and neutering animals creates less unwanted animals and less animals who are euthanized for no reason other than they don't have a home.